OTEC 2017 & IT’S A START 2017

The Digital Media and Gaming Incubator at George Brown College’s School of Design is excited to team up with the Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference (OTEC) to feature the first Canadian startups to pitch at the Global Final in Beijing, China.

The Digital Media and Gaming Incubator has been successfully organizing the IT’S A START Pitch Competition for emerging start-ups in Toronto over the past five years.

This year’s top two winners, Flashfood and Genecis Enviro Tech, will be representing Canada at the 2017 OTEC Global Final next month in Beijing. Flashfood is the creator of an app that allows grocery stores and restaurants to sell high-quality surplus food at steep discounts to savvy shoppers. Genecis is a startup devoted to recycling food scraps into value-added products such as bio-plastics, biofuels and food additives.

OTEC will be bringing 23 teams from 10 countries to compete for the 2017 OTEC Global Final on August 19 where the grand prize of $1M RMB is up for grabs. The OTEC grand champion in 2016 was Biocellation, a synthetic biology startup, from the United States.

The Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference (OTEC) is based in Beijing and is one of the largest government-sponsored events in China that aims to connect international entrepreneurs with investment and growth opportunities.

Key Dates

IT’S A START Pitch Competition:

Final pitch competition was held on Friday, April 28, 2017 at Corus Quay, 25 Dockside Drive, Toronto, Canada

Start-ups will be assessed on originality, clarity of presentation, creativity and design, feasibility, market readiness, user friendliness and probability of success.

Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference (OTEC):

August 18-19, 2017, Beijing, China

Global Final competition of 5th OTEC will be held on August 19th.

ABOUT OTEC

OTEC (Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Conference) is a series of annual events held by Chaoyang district government in Beijing, China. It is a comprehensive platform serving entrepreneurs who want to start a business in China. It provides entrepreneurs with following resources: talents, projects, technologies, markets, capitals, policies, and services. In the past four years, 8000+ entrepreneurs, 2000+ projects and 60+ investment organizations from 19 countries and regions have participated in OTEC. More than 300 projects got funded, 150 projects have launched in Beijing and Shenzhen through OTEC.

The winner will be invited to join OTEC in Beijing during a 4-day trip, which includes:

Startup Tour in China, which includes visit famous Chinese tech companies, incubators, VC and startups

Pitch at the Global Final of OTEC 2017

Attend OTEC summit in Beijing

Personal reference to potential VC, customers and partners

Opportunities to get up to 6 months free working space in Beijing

Talent/industry/financing policies consulting

The OTEC champion in 2016 was Biocellation, a synthetic biology startup from the United States. Startups from around the world will be represented at the event including Australia, Singapore, USA and more.

The top prize is $1M RMB (approx. $200K CDN) equity-free grand prize with trip to Beijing.